The first photograph taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft in the immediate vicinity of Jupiter’s moon Europa has landed on Earth. The distance between the spacecraft and Europa is only 352 km, the closest in about 20 years to the Galileo spacecraft.
On the 29th (local time), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) released the first photo of Europa taken by Junocam during a close flight. Surface features near Europa’s equator are revealed.
The rugged terrain of Europa is visible, covered with ice crust. The hollow part is assumed to be an impact crater.
At the time of filming, the speed of the Juno spacecraft was approximately 14.7 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second). During the close flight, Juno collected high-resolution images and detailed data on Europa’s ice shell structure, interior and surface composition.
Data from Juno’s magnifying glass and microwave radiometer (MWR) will provide new insights into how the structure of Europa’s ice is changing beneath the crust.
Juno’s team plans to compare the complete images Juno acquired with images from previous missions to determine if Europa’s surface features have changed over the past two decades.
“Juno’s Flight Europe was very successful,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s lead researcher.
Juno’s observations were made before the next “Europa Clipper” mission. The Europa Clipper is a spaceship focused on Europa, where there should be liquid water under the ice.
The spacecraft will conduct a close-up reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether Europa, an icy satellite with underground seas, has the ability to embrace life. The Europa Clipper is expected to launch in 2024 and arrive in Europe in 2030, six years later.
Meanwhile, with this close flight, the Juno spacecraft corrected its orbit, reducing the time it takes to orbit Jupiter from 43 days to 38 days. In 2023 and 2024, Juno will fly close to Jupiter and the most active volcanic moon Io in the solar system.
Reporter Min-ha Yang ([email protected]), Internet Electronic Journal
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